All Entries in the "Construction" Category
Record Number of Sea Turtle Strandings
According to the Cape Cod Times, a record number of sea turtles stranded yesterday. The National Marine Life Center would like to be able to help the MassAudubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (authorized beach respondants) and the New England Aquarium (authorized intensive care unit) by opening our new sea turtle ward to these severely debilitated [...]
We need YOU to help Open Our Doors!
Exactly two years ago, the National Marine Life Center had a crisis situation. The roof over our rehabilitation facility began to collapse and we had to move out of the building.
We put in a massive effort to raise the $3.1 million needed to remove the original building and replace it with a new hospital [...]
Roll-up Door
The “working door” of our new hospital was installed today – a roll-up door at the rear of the building through which dolphins, porpoises, and pilot whales will eventually be admitted. Installed by Overhead Door Garage Headquarters, the roll-up steel door is 12 feet tall by 12 feet wide. Eventually, a bridge crane will be [...]
Turtle Ward Walls
This week the crew from Target Construction has been busy erecting walls around NMLC’s new sea turtle ward. The walls are made of a moisture and mold resistant drywall affixed to metal studs. A layer of “FRP” (fiberglass reinforced panels) is then glued to the drywall in order to provide a durable, washable surface. Washable [...]
Extech Doors
The final components of our Extech facade were the doors. Specially designed for NMLC, each door is twelve feet high, six feet wide, and 600 pounds in weight. Also made of translucent Extech material, the doors are secured in a heavy metal frame and swing outward in “carriage door” style. Heavy bolts secure the doors [...]
Extech Installation – Day 5
The last nine Extech panels were installed today, and the front facade is nearly complete! Work continued with adding a frame around the edges to help hold the panels in place. All that’s left are the doors, which were delivered at the end of the day. Inside, you can see how much light the panels [...]
Extech Installation – Day 4
The weather cleared today, allowing Extech installation to continue. Richard and Mac from Target Construction framed the west half of the facade, then Brian helped install 16 more panels. We’re almost done!
Fun Facts about NMLC’s Extech Facade:
~ There will be 49 total panels.
~ Except for the first and the 49th panel, each panel is 2 [...]
Extech Installation – Day 3
Work progressed less dramatically today, although the crew still made great progress. They finished installing Extech panels up to the hospital mid-line, and then installed the exterior frame to help support the wall. Rain stopped us early, and is likely to prevent exterior work tomorrow.
Michael, Ginette, Jo, and Mami from cosestudi stopped by to check [...]
Extech Installation – Day 2
Now that the crew has installed the first panels, the work proceeds more quickly. Richard, Mac, and Brian had five additional panels installed before I arrived at NMLC this morning! They proceeded to work their way towards the hospital’s mid-line. Along they way, they paused for some touch-up painting of the metal beams before installing [...]
Extech Installation – Day 1
It was a chilly fall morning. The polycarbonate plastic of the Extech panels was stiff with the cold which made this first day of installation somewhat challenging. Nevertheless, Richard and Mac from Target Construction, assisted by NMLC’s Animal Care and Facilities Coordinator Brian Moore, rose to the challenge! With two people in the lift and [...]
Installation of Extech Wall Begins!
Today, construction workers at the National Marine Life Center (NMLC) in Bourne will begin installing an unusual wall – one made completely of translucent polycarbonate plastic by a company called Extech®.
The Extech wall is made up of two-foot wide interlocking polycarbonate plastic panels. Each panel has a honeycomb-like cell structure that increases durability and provides [...]
Pouring concrete on the mezzanine
The concrete trucks and crews were back for another pour! This one involved pouring the concrete floor in the center section of the mezzanine where the pumps and filters of the hospital’s life support systems will be located. Crews took care in finishing the floor to add slopes towards drains and to work around cutouts [...]
Upper Cape Tech Students Help Build Hospital!
Students from the Plumbing and Heating Shop at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School got a real-world lesson in radiant floor heat. With the guidance of master plumber Bill Battles and his crew from Village Plumbing, the fifteen students learned the principles of radiant floor heat and helped to place tubing. Students also worked [...]
Insulation
One of the most important features of our new marine animal hospital is that it will be well-insulated and weather-tight. When you’ve worked in a cold, leaky warehouse for years, believe me, this is really really exciting! The hospital will feature R-30 insulation in the ceiling and R-24 in the walls.
According to Wikipedia, the [...]
Up on the Rooftop
Today, we took a field trip to the roof top of the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital! We learned about the standing seam method of metal roof construction and the Simple Saver insulation liner that is so safe you can walk on it. In fact, it is OSHA-approved for fall safety. Brian [...]
We have walls!
Over the past week, the building skeleton has been filled in with exterior wall panels. Crews from H&S Construction are working hard to finish so we can open our new marine animal hospital by October 31st for sea turtle stranding season. It’s been wonderfully fun to see the building look more and more complete each [...]
There’s something mesmerizing about a caterpillar.
There is just something mesmerizing about a caterpillar.
No, not that kind.
Well yes, that kind also….
but I was actually thinking about this kind of caterpillar!
I could watch these caterpillars for hours!
It’s so exciting to watch all the activity around the construction site. On any given day, there may be four or five subcontracting companies present, each [...]
The first wall panel
Today, workers from H&S Construction installed the first wall panels on the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital. The pre-engineered steel panels are being hung horizontally, in a pattern reminiscent of traditional “clapboard” siding. The galvanized panels will weather into a shade similar to “Cape Cod Gray.” Most importantly, these walls will provide [...]
We have doors!
Some of the construction work is wonderfully loud. Our building shakes as heavy equipment pours concrete, dumps fill, drills through concrete, and places beams. The air echoes with the rumble of trucks and cranes and backhoes. Whenever we hear a particularly intriguing construction sound, we race outside to check out the progress. It’s an exciting [...]
Rising Steel
With the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge standing sentry, the steel building that will make up NMLC’s rehab center gradually claims its own place along Buzzards Bay’s landscape. This is the final week that construction enthusiasts will be able to see “right through” the rapidly forming hospital building, because the insulating walls and metal and [...]
